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Post by Admin on Dec 28, 2019 23:32:05 GMT
Anna Shcherbakova led an Eteri Tutberidze-coached one-two-three finish at the Russian Figure Skating Championships, overtaking short program leader Alena Kostornaia with a near-flawless free skate. The defending champion was in imperious form, landing three quad jumps, and had only one minor error as she retained her national title in Krasnoyarsk. Alexandra Trusova put in a free skate with a number of mistakes but still managed to hold on to third place. However, one name missing was Evgenia Medvedeva, who battled through multiple issues to finish fifth in the short program. The 20-year-old Toronto-based skater withdrew from the competition before the free skate, reportedly due to continuing problems with her skating boots which she had been struggling with all week. It was later announced that Medvedeva would miss the rest of the season competitively to work on improving her technical ability.
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Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2019 7:30:30 GMT
Dmitri Aliev overcame two falls in his free skate to win the men's Russian national figure skating championships on Friday (27 December), setting new personal bests in the free skate and total score. Sitting fourth after Thursday's short program, the 20-year-old put together a strong skate to clinch his maiden national title in Krasnoyarsk. Juniors Andrei Mozalev and Petr Gumennik, who both finished ahead in the short program, were unable to match the more experienced Aliev in the longer free skate, while short program winner Makar Ignatov also fell back, eventually finishing fourth. Aliev's score of 173.63 gave him an overall total of 260.98, with Artur Danielian (253.42) finishing second after a stunning free skate and Alexander Samarin (252.74) third on the podium. Aliev, a PyeongChang 2018 Olympian, opened with a beautiful quadruple Lutz that scored over four points on the -5 to +5 grade of execution scale. Although he fell on his next quadruple toeloop and just about held on to the same jump in combination with a double toe, he got through the rest of his jumps without trouble. There was a late scare for the Ukhta native when he fell on his step sequence, but his performance was enough to earn him the title of Russian champion.
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Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2019 23:14:23 GMT
Winner of this year’s Grand Prix final, Kostornaia was not as solid as expected, making slight errors on several landings.
However, the 16-year-old effortlessly coped with two triple axels, scoring 259.83 points which put her in second place.
Alexandra Trusova, who attempted to make four quadruple jumps in her free program, had a disastrous performance on Saturday, falling twice in the beginning of the program and doubling yet another attempt at a quad.
She recovered in the second part of the routine, performing a solid quadruple toe-loop and a triple lutz-triple loop combination, but that was not enough to beat her more stable teammates.
The skater couldn’t hide her disappointment, bursting into tears after her error-riddled performance.
Trusova finished third with 226.34 points.
The trio, which has been training under renowned coach Eteri Tutberidze, will likely represent Russia on the international level this season after they swept the podium in Krasnoyarsk.
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Post by Admin on Dec 30, 2019 21:54:55 GMT
Stunning Shcherbakova It was nearly perfection from Shcherbakova, who won her first national title last year aged just 14. The now-15-year-old included three quadruple jumps in her routine: two quad Lutzes (one as part of her opening quad Lutz, triple toeloop combination) and a quad flip. Her only error of the entire skate came on her quadruple flip, which she had to step out of. But she made up for that with a beautifully-executed second quad Lutz, which earned her an incredible 4.8 grade of execution score. She also found time to make a costume change part of the way through her skate. The routine earned her 181.94 points, of which over 108 came for her technical elements, for a total of 261.87 points.
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Post by Admin on Dec 31, 2019 20:27:58 GMT
Kostornaia just misses out Kostornaia, who had an advantage of nearly 10 points over Shcherbakova after the short program, has one disadvantage on her younger rival: she has no quadruple jumps.
But the 16-year-old is able to execute the triple Axel, showing it off twice in her routine including in her opening triple Axel, double toeloop combination.
Mistakes on a later double Axel and triple toeloop might have cost her, however.
Skating after Shcherbakova did, she knew exactly what score she had to achieve – around 172 points – to claim the crown.
Ultimately, her performance wasn't enough, earning 169.97 points for a total of 259.83, 2.04 points behind Shcherbakova.
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